On Wednesday 16th August 2023, Safaricom officially launched its mobile banking service M-Pesa in Ethiopia.
“We are excited to go live with M-Pesa in Ethiopia and start providing mobile financial services to our customers,” said Stanley Njoroge, interim CEO of Safaricom Ethiopia.
“We will continue to broaden the services our customers receive from the M-Pesa platform that will improve the quality of life for our customers.”
The launch comes three months after receiving a mobile money license from the bank of Ethiopia. Within these three months, M-Pesa has completed a demanding three-month pilot and testing phase, completed technical readiness, secured significant bank partnerships, hired, train and onboard M-pesa agents.
Safaricom became the first private telecoms provider in Ethiopia in 2019 after the government liberalized a sector after long domination by the state-controlled Ethio Telecom.
M-Pesa, which already boasts a staggering 51 million customers across seven African countries, holds high hopes for its Ethiopian venture. Moreover, with a population of 120 million people, Ethiopia is poised to fuel significant growth for the mobile money platform.
Ethiopians will now be able to send money within the country and receive money from within the country and abroad and pay merchants. Additionally, M-Pesa will enable its users to buy airtime and transfer money between their bank accounts and mobile money wallets.
Safaricom Ethiopia customers can use M-PESA services by dialing *733# on their Safaricom line on both Android and iOS devices. The M-Pesa app is available in five languages via the Google Play store for android.
